Monthly Archives: August 2017

Arpaio, an early and enthusiastic Trump surrogate, was convicted of criminal contempt in July for violating a court order to stop racially profiling Latinos.

When Trump allegedly asked Sessions this past spring whether it would be possible to drop the federal criminal investigation into Arpaio, Sessions told Trump such a move would be inappropriate, but that Trump could pardon Arpaio if he was convicted, The Post reported, citing three people familiar with the conversation.

But some legal analysts also pointed out that Trump’s decision to pardon Arpaio, and the actions he took preceding that, may serve as an important piece of evidence to special counsel Robert Mueller, who is reportedly investigating the president for obstruction of justice.

Specifically, Trump’s decision to pardon Arpaio is key to determining his intent when he had the February conversation with Comey about dropping the Russia investigation before ultimately firing Comey after he refused to do so, said Renato Mariotti, a former federal prosecutor.

Several Trump allies and Republican lawmakers have since grasped those words and said they do not prove Trump tried to obstruct justice by asking Comey to drop the investigation and subsequently firing him.

Sen. Jim Risch of Idaho, for instance, zeroed in on the statement during Comey’s testimony.

After reading out Comey’s recollection of Trump’s statement, Risch said to Comey, “He did not direct you to let it go.”

“Not in his words, no,” Comey replied.

“He did not order you to let it go,” Risch said.

He later asked Comey: “Do you know of any case where a person has been charged for obstruction of justice or, for that matter, any other criminal offense, where this — they said, or thought, they hoped for an outcome?”

When Comey said that despite Trump’s words, he took it as a direction from the president of the United States, Risch said, “You may have taken it as a direction, but that’s not what he said.”

The main thing Mueller — who was put in charge of the Russia investigation after Trump fired Comey — would need to prove in an obstruction of justice case is whether Trump acted with corrupt, or unlawful, intent when he asked the FBI director to drop the Flynn investigation.

A group of Wells Fargo & Co. customers who say they were victims of unfair overdraft practices want their claims heard in court, but the bank wants the disputes handled through arbitration.

Class-action lawsuits filed around the country have accused Wells Fargo of changing the order of debit card transactions — from highest dollar amount to lowest dollar amount — to unfairly increase the number of transactions eligible for overdraft penalties.

That was the message Friday from Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen, who warned about rolling back post-financial crisis banking reforms. Her remarks, delivered at a conference for central bankers and other business bigwigs in Jackson Hole, Wyo., flew in the face of the Trump White House’s stated intention to restore a more freewheeling approach to Wall Street oversight.

“A decade has passed since the beginnings of a global financial crisis that resulted in the most severe financial panic and largest contraction in economic activity in the United States since the Great Depression,” Yellen said. “Already, for some, memories of this experience may be fading–memories of just how costly the financial crisis was and of why certain steps were taken in response.”

She later added: “The evidence shows that reforms since the crisis have made the financial system substantially safer.”

A damning new report from a federal watchdog shows that 19 state housing finance agencies wasted millions of dollars that should have gone to struggling homeowners as part of the government’s Hardest Hit Fund program.

The report, published Friday by the Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, showed that SIGTARP’s investigation found that the all 19 of the state housing finance agencies that participated in the Hardest Hit Fund collectively wasted $3 million on items like barbecues, steak and seafood dinners, gift cards, flowers, gym memberships, employee bonuses, litigation, celebrations, and cars, instead of using the money to help struggling borrowers.

Wells Fargo CEO Tim Sloane is continuing the bank’s history of dumb decisions — this time fighting a class-action suit that other banks have settled.Post photo composite

Wells Fargo Chief Executive Tim Sloan has reassured customers he’s doing everything he can to make up for past wrongs — except, apparently, if they got hit with excessive overdraft fees.

Lawyers for the embattled bank will appear before an Atlanta federal appeals court on Thursday to argue that more than a million customers possibly dinged by excessive overdraft charges shouldn’t be allowed to join a 9-year-old class-action lawsuit.

As calls for the replacement of Wells Fargo’s board mount, experts say attention — and blame — for a continuing pattern of misbehavior should also be focused on the company’s external auditor, KPMG LLP.

The record of management failures at Wells WFC, -0.23% started with revelations last year that millions of accounts had been opened illicitly. It got longer after the admission last month that the bank had also forced unneeded auto insurance on customers and neglected to refund optional guaranteed asset protection, so-called GAP, coverage for auto loan borrowers.

Politicians and regulators see the misbehavior as a pattern that should have been caught — and stopped. And there have been consequences for the bank. One CEO was forced to step down and forfeit millions of dollars in incentive compensation. Thousands of workers, including several executives, have been fired. Most recently the bank reshuffled its board, replacing its chairman and adjusting board committee memberships including on its audit and examination committee.

But external auditors should serve as another line of defense. Each year, auditors offer an opinion on whether their clients’ financial statements are truthful. To do so, the auditors have to determine whether they have enough confidence in the company’s internal controls to offer that blessing.

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“There’s been far too little attention since the crisis on how the external auditors should be looking out for the public,” Andy Green, managing director of economic policy for the Center for American Progress, told MarketWatch.